Anguished at the increasing number of deaths due to starvation, the Supreme Court (SC) has warned the government against dividing India into two sections — one for the elite and the other for the impoverished.
“You can’t have two Indians. What is this stark contradiction in our whole approach in eradication of malnutrition? You say you are a powerful country but at the same time, starvation deaths are taking place in various parts of the country,” the court said on Wednesday.
The top court reminded the governance of its claim of being an economically strong nation and asked Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the planning commission, to file an affidavit explaining the per capita daily income for the BPL category. Currently, it is Rs20 in urban areas and Rs11 in rural areas. “How can you justify this meager amount when even in the rural areas the amount is not enough?’’ the bench wondered.
SC also asked the planning commission to explain why the number of people in the BPL category in a state has been kept at 36% of the population. It said several states, including the Congress-ruled ones, have disputed the figure, arguing that there were many more people living below the poverty line.
“We have affidavits of all the states which have said that BPL figures were much larger than 36% even on the basis of parameters set by the planning commission,” the court said.
The observation was made during a hearing for a PIL filed by People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), a rights body with which Dr Binayak Sen is also associated.
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